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O Great One Who became a babe, by Your birth again You begot me.
O Pure One Who was baptized, let Your washing wash us of impurity.
O Living One Who was embalmed, let us obtain life by Your death.
I will thank You entirely in Him Who fills all. Glory to You entirely from all of us!
-Nativity Hymn 23, St Ephrem the Syrian
Every year I'm drawn to read St Ephrem's Hymns on the Nativity and blessed by his meditation on Christ's incarnation and the depths of its meaning for us. St Ephrem's songs of praise written over 1600 years ago impact my heart and mind to praise our God today! Christ's actions in this world as a child and a man have opened the way for us to be born again, to be washed, and to be given new and everlasting life. Christ descended to us that He might raise us up and restore us to the image of God. We pray for God's boundless blessings to be yours as we continue to celebrate this season of Christ coming to enlighten the world!
In This Issue:
- What's Next?! - Our Missionary Calling
- Ordination
- Final Semester
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What's Next?! - Our Missionary Calling
We continue to seek the Lord for his direction for our future ministry. Currently we have 3 ministry locations that we are exploring and praying over and ask that you would pray with us that the Lord's will would be made clear. Alaska, Albania, and South Korea all present unique and inspiring possibilities for us and we are in dialogue with missionaries and bishops in these lands about how we might begin living, education, and ministry there.
Along with discerning our field of ministry, we will also be needing to discern the intermediate plans of where we will live in the US after graduation. This will be a time of strengthening our support team by reconnecting with so many of you and visiting many parishes. We also hope to have a home base where we can continue to grow in ministry experience while stateside.
Please pray for us in these fast approaching decisions!
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Ordination
On the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the temple in November, Fr. Christopher was ordained to the priesthood at the hand of His Grace Bishop Paul. What a beautiful service it was! As we remembered Mary being presented in the house of God, (a “proclamation of man’s salvation”), we were able to present ourselves again to Him as living sacrifices in this new way. Thank you so much for your prayers surrounding this event. We were blessed to have most of our parents in attendance as well as many dear campus friends. Adding to the depth of the beauty, of course, was the civil feast of Thanksgiving a couple days later (and Andrew’s 4th birthday)!
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Final Semester
We have a lot to look forward to here in our final semester of seminary at St. Vladimir’s. Fr. Chris is taking continued courses in homiletics, Greek language, liturgical theology, pastoral theology, and liturgical music. The seminary is hoping to record a men’s octet that Fr. Chris will be a part of, and Jen is hoping to audit a music class as well. The St. Innocent society continues plans for a seminarian trip to Uganda this summer as well as plans to host another speaker and another group discussion event, both of which were successful last semester. Andrew’s co-op and music class are continuing joys. We’re getting to know more people at our parish assignment in New Jersey and just today Andrew asked again when we’d get to go back to “our New Jersey church.”
It’s hard to believe we’re beginning our final semester. Everyone told us it would go fast. Again, we cannot thank enough you who have supported us for this opportunity, and to those of you who have “prayed us through.” We pray Fr. Chris’s educational foundation and ordination will be used by God on the field, along with our parish assignment experience and countless other experiences we’ve received here. We’re so excited to see what’s next but it’s easy to grieve a little, too, as we prepare to leave. When again in our lives will we have so many neighbors who hold the same beliefs and faith practices, attend services together, fellowship outside as the kids play, and pray for each other just because we hear a family is out with the flu? When again will we have 5 different neighbors we could call who happen to have cars already outfitted with carseats that fit our boys when our car is in the shop? We have friendships here we cherish and which we pray we’ll be able to maintain throughout our lives. Yet another nurturing community has been gifted to us from this experience. What a blessing from God!
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With love in Christ who has enlightened the world,
Fr Chris & Mat. Jen, Andrew, and Gideon
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